


For Want of a Light-Up Shoe

by pompeivs



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: BFFULs (best friends for un-life), Davey Dies AU, Dialogue Heavy, Gen, Jasper still dies too, S3E5 spoilers, Two Ghost Kids Talk About Being Dead: The Chapterfic, tags might get updates or not if I ever expand on this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-08-04
Packaged: 2019-06-09 07:18:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15262266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pompeivs/pseuds/pompeivs
Summary: Or, Why Ten Year Olds Shouldn't Play Real-World Scooby-Doo.Davey knew he'd probably regret it all his life if he ditched his best friend over the camp, but was the alternative really any better?





	1. boom

"You're going to get us in trouble!"

"The only one getting in trouble," Jasper said with a turn, "is Campbell."

Davey stomped forward from the bushes, and grabbed the blond boy's arm. "I don't wanna get tee'd off, but if you were REALLY my friend, you wouldn't wanna ruin this camp for me."

"Campbell's clearly just a bogus loser who just wants to use you, _Davey_. And if you were really MY friend, you'd wanna help me put him away!"

This made Davey take pause, drop the Ideas Folder, and glance down the maw of the cavern. The dark, spooky cavern with who-knows-what in its depths. Jasper took this opportunity to speak up. "Besides, don't you think this stupid cave thing is wicked suspicious?"

Davey took a step back and crossed his arms. "I bet it's just got bears or something! Or bats!"

Jasper grabbed the redhead's wrist and tugged. "C'mon, Davey! Look, if there's nothing down there I'll can it about wanting to go home. But if there _is_ stuff down there you gotta admit I was right all along!"

The other boy sighed, and kicked the ground. "Swear on it?"

"Pinky swear!"

"Fine, deal. This is a dumb idea, but fine."

The two boys stomped down the steps of the cavern, and never went back up.

††

"Look at all this stuff, Davey!"

The kid question was in awe at the treasure around him. Illegal treasure. And lots of dangeous stuff, to boot-

_** Crash! ** _

"Was-was that the lantern, Jasp?"

"I-it's chill, Davey! I mean, there's a candle here-"

A hissing sound filled the air.

Both boys shouted out their "Oh dang!"s and tried their damnest to outrun the inevitable explosion, but it was simply too dark to find and scurry out the exit. Oh, if only Jasper still had his L.A. Gears.

††

The pair woke up a time later under the rubble, hearing a familiar voice from somewhere above.

"Mr. Campbell?" Jasper called out, but it didn't seem to alert the founder.

Davey somehow (how?) squirmed out from the rocks pinning him, calling out to the man. "Mr. Campbell, Mr. Campbell! What are you-"

The man didn't hear him. He was muttering under his breath, about legal fees and potential manslaughter charges and all the money he just lost and oh he should've just asked Quartermaster to get the damn folder.

Jasper had worked his way to the surface by now and shared an equally confused look with his friend.

Davey cautiously reached a hand out, scared to disturb Campbell, but-

But when he tried to pull on the edge of his shirt, his hand went clean through.

"Jasper?"

"Davey...?"

"Did we die?"

It seemed to hit them both at the same time that they didn't feel any pain despite having just been buried under tons of rocks. In fact, they couldn't feel...much of anything. No breeze, no summer heat. It was cold.

"...This is wack."

"You said it, Jasp."


	2. campfires aren't warm if you're dead

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I dunno how people write couple-thousand-word chapters, but I'd imagine it's probably because my method of writing down everything in one burst isn't exactly the best writing technique. Anyway, yay, another chapter!

Davey watched as Mr. Campbell rowed back off to camp. He'd dropped the ideas folder before he left. Didn't he need that? Isn't that why they were here in the first place? Why they-

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a rock splashing in the water.

"Wicked. Hey, Davey, if you really focus you can pick up stuff. Wanna throw rocks at Campbell?"

Davey gave Jasper _A Look_ , which meant to leave him the heck alone and go away. He hadn't used that _Look_ in a while. Not since he got his Order Of The Sparrows badge. Jasper's expression dropped in turn, and the blond boy quietly resumed his pebble assault.

The redhead instead went to go quietly look for firewood. It occurred to him that there really wasn't any reason to; it's not like he'd be cold, and why be afraid of the dark when he and Jasper were probably the spookiest things on Regular Island? Spooky! That's a word Davey certainly didn't think would ever apply to himself. Or Jasper. But that was cool, right? Ghosts were totally cool, and maybe he'd get to meet some cool mystery solvers, and---

And he was a ghost, and they were _dead_. Davey felt a cold, dark feeling rip through his chest. He lost his focus and the bundle of pine branches he'd gathered fell through his arms.

Jasper seemed to have heard it. "You alright over there, homeslice?"

Davey made an attempt to kick at the branches. "What do you think, Jasper?"

The other boy frowned and walked towards him, only for Davey to turn and level a glare at him.

"Woah, hey, no need to go postal-"

"If you hadn't _insisted_ we go in that _dumb_ _ol' cavern_ -"

"But I was _**right!**_ "

" ** _That doesn't matter!_** Who care's if you're _right?!_ It's not like we can do anything about it because we're _ **DEAD!**_ "

Davey found himself on the ground in the fetal position. Jasper was already caught off-guard by the sudden volley of yelling, and didn't know _what_ to do when it was just as quickly replaced by sobbing.

"Dude..?"

"G-Go away, Jasp!"

"...What were you doing picking up sticks?"

Davey was caught between continuing crying and confusion. _Oh right, those._

"S'gonna make a fire."

Jasper nodded. "I can help! If you want."

Davey glanced up at his friend, and rubbed the tears away from his eyes. "..Fine."

* * *

The two had a small campfire going by sunset. It didn't really offset the numb chill they felt, but it was still pretty relaxing to watch the crackling flames. Neither talked and, despite the silence being comfortable, Jasper found himself glancing over at his friend quite a bit. He'd gotten used to the new-Davey who was all smiles and cheer, so seeing him look so sullen just felt wrong. He turned his gaze back to the fire.

"Jasp?"

"Yeah?"

He could hear Davey shuffling next to him. "I'm sorry for yelling at you."

"No sweat, man. I..." Jasper sighed quietly and pulled his knees up to his chest. "I'm sorry for making you go with me."

Davey hummed, and patted his knees. "At least we got each other! It'd be pretty lonely out here by yourself. Gosh, I dunno if I could handle it!"

Jasper grinned slightly and turned his attention over to the opposite shore. "Anywhere's better than that stupid camp."

The other boy scooted over to follow his gaze. "I wonder if we could even go back now?"

"I dunno. I mean, you always hear about ghosts just hanging right around where they died. What if we're stuck on the island forever?"

"I don't wanna be stuck here forever," Davey shuddered. "It's scary at night!"

"Chill out, it's not like anything can hurt us."

The redhead looked up at the stars that had emerged over their heads. The pair stayed quiet for a while, fire flickering behind them.

"Do you think anyone misses us?"

"You know, Davey, I bet they don't even know we're gone yet."

 


	3. Death & The Consequences

Cameron Campbell sat at his desk, head in his hands.

Okay, so _maybe_ he shouldn't have sent two dumb kids to a dangerous island, but all the damn brats had to do was get a file from his desk. How did they even _manage_ to fuck that up so badly they _died_? How was he supposed to know? And Davey was probably his best camper, too- eager to help, didn't ask too many questions. If he stayed that dumb and gullible, he could've been a great employee someday. Too late for that now, Campbell supposed. The thought that pained him the most was probably how much money he stood to lose. Two dead campers meant two sets of parents that might threaten to sue unless he forked over enough shut-up-dollars.

He was so distraught that he almost didn't even notice when he hit his first roadblock: Davey's paperwork.

Name: David

Age: 10

Parent or guardian's name...

phone number...

address...

Why the hell was everything blank? It looked like the kid filled out his name and age himself.

_Well,_ he figured, _that's less money I have to shell out._

* * *

"What are you doing, Davey?"

The redhead in question was constructing... something out of rocks and branches, but lost his focus and dropped everything when Jasper called out to him. "I wanted to make... like, you know those things that mark trails? The stacks of rocks or other things? I thought maybe building one for us would help us quit being stuck!"

Jasper looked past his friend at the disjointed pile of rubble. "I think it'll be a while before that'll work."

"Do you always gotta be negative?" Davey frowned.

"Don't you think we've earned the right to be pessimists?"

"I don't even know what that word means! But being angry isn't gonna change anything." Davey stood up and grinned widely. "We have all the time in the world to go exploring now! Isn't that fun?"

Jasper's arms crossed, and he gave a huff. "Explore what? The only thing on this dang rock is us and some trees and Campbell's dumb summer home."

"Maybe he's got secrets there!"

"Last time we looked for secrets we _exploded._ "

Davey's smile nearly twitched downward, nearly reminded Jasper _just whose fault that was_ , but he caught himself just in time. "It's not like we can die _again!_ I bet he's got something cool hid somewhere. Maybe even something that can help us!"

The blond seemed prepared to argue further, but finally sighed. "I guess you're right. Whatever. Lead the way, Davey."

Davey grinned full-force again. "Well that's- maybe not the spirit exactly but it's getting there! Onward!"

* * *

Campbell shuffled through his papers unenthusiastically. Now to deal with the other kid. Casper? Jasper? Campbell _remembered_ that kid's parents. His parents were... not _utterly_ _loaded_ , but well off enough that having to pay them off might kill his offshore bank account.

Name: Jasper Michael Caldwell

Age: 11 years

And they'd actually bothered to fill out their brat's form themselves so there was no excuse to just avoid the issue. _Two_ phone numbers? Nonsense. He secretly hoped that they were the kind of wealthy parents that just bought shit for their kid so he'd shut up. Sure would explain what he was doing _here_ , after all. If they gave a damn it would make this mess, well, messier, and that was a headache he didn't want to deal with.

Maybe he could just _avoid_ , you know, letting anyone know two campers died on the premises. After all, there was two of them, they were friends, maybe they ran off? Davey's personality did a complete flip midway through camp, but there were still records those counselors he'd fired kept of all his trouble from earlier in the year. Yeah, that would work, probably. The problem child convinced the snotty little rich kid to run away with him while no one was looking. Might've even made it to town! "Runaways" sure sounded a lot better for Campbell's records than "dead". He could dispose of their bags somewhere and then it would _really_ be convincing.

Hopefully it wouldn't pull in as much publicity, either. How was he going to make money after this disaster? The ideas folder was full of garbage! If the camp shut down he'd be ruined. All those kids, going off to their space camps and acting camps and underwater-basket-weaving camps and-

Maybe that was the solution, huh? If Camp Campbell offered everything, he could advertise it as everything! Genius. Maybe he can sweep this little incident under the rug after all.

* * *

The two ghost children stood utterly confounded at the door. They tried the knob, but their ability to move stuff just didn't seem good enough yet to turn a knob all the way. Or maybe it was locked. Who knows?

Jasper kicked the door.

Jasper's foot went promptly right through the door, without a scratch.

Right, that was a thing they could probably do. The two shared a sheepish glance before walking right on through, wandering the halls.

"Jasp, lookie! There's a TV over here!"

"Probably won't pick up any cable," Jasper huffed, but he still went to go investigate.

Davey fiddled with the buttons for a little bit before it finally buzzed on. Faint static whispered on the edges of the screen, but they could still make out a news broadcast. He turned to flash a triumphant grin at his friend.

"Well what do you know. Wicked!"

Davey bounced on his heels. "Do you think we'll see ourselves on the news, Jaspie?"

Jasper hummed in response, looking to find a TV remote. "It _has_ been, like, over a week. Maybe?"

The two found themselves sat on the floor then, paying more attention to the news than they'd ever thought possible. All for naught; it was just boring stuff about the weather and some festival in a nearby town. Davey seemed to physically deflate.

Jasper found himself being the comforting one, for once. "Cheer up, dude. There's no rush to leave, so we can always see if something comes up tomorrow... or we can catch some cartoons! That would be fun, right?"

The smaller kid fell backwards to sprawl out in the floor. "Yeah, I guess."

Jasper opened his mouth to say something else, but a buzz from the television interrupted him. As if by fate, suddenly, there they were! Jasper recognized the camp photo that was taken just a little after the Order Of The Sparrow incident, cropped to the two of them, where he looked ready to die and Davey had his arm around his shoulders. The words AMBER ALERT, their names, and ages hovered by the side. "Davey? Davey! Look!"

About the time the two could sit up and pay attention, though, the announcement was almost over. Runaways?

"I wish! That sounds like a rad adventure. This ghost business is dumb and boring."

Davey pulled his knees up to his chest. "Maybe if we can get off the island we could really go on a cool adventure! That's a good goal, right?"

"That's a pretty big 'if,' man."

"I bet if we worked hard, and _really_ put our minds to it, we could do anything!"

Jasper couldn't help but laugh. "You sound like a teacher. Or one of the counselors."

Davey found himself chuckling despite himself. "It's good advice! I bet we can."

"Maybe we can go home sometimes. Or go wherever dead people are supposed to go."

"Someday, Jasp! We'll make it someday!"

 


	4. time passes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next night update? next night update! it is 4:20 in the morning as I write this. Send help.  
> Also oh boy it's one of those "part of the lines are from an episode part I made up"  
> I'm very sorry for not being A Good Writer(tm)

Time seemed to drift along at a snail's pace on the island.

The two had claimed a room of the summer home to themselves, the one with the television. They'd scoured the house for furniture they couldn't really use and blankets they really didn't need, and constructed a fort in the middle to the best of their shaky abilities. It didn't really do anything, but why not? It felt safe, made the place a little more like home. And even though the days seemed to drag by, it still caught the two off-guard when they realized summer had almost ended.

Davey found himself watching the bus from the shore. A counselor he didn't recognize was shuffling a bunch of kids he _did_ recognize onboard, loaded down with bags and backpacks and the like. He wondered if his bags were still lost over there somewhere.

"Whatcha staring at, Davey?"

He broke out of his reverie to wave Jasper over. "Camp's over."

"Huh." Jasper hummed as the bus finally roared to life and drove off. "Wonder if it's like, _over_ over."

"You know, I kinda hope it isn't!"

The blond was taken aback. "Really? Why?"

Davey grinned over at him. "'Cause maybe someone from over there can come over here and we'll get a new friend!"

Jasper snorted. "Really, David?"

"Yeah really!"

"Guess it's better than only having _one_ friend for all eternity." Jasper ruffled Davey's fluffed-up hair with a grin. "God, it's really starting to hit home. I'm trapped on an island with _you_ forever."

"I'll have you know I'm great company!" Davey retorted with a laugh.

And so the conversation descended quickly into playfighting.

* * *

Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months. Eventually, the pines outside were covered in snow. The two couldn't throw snowballs at each other (they flew right through) so they threw them at vaguely-Jasper-and-Davey-looking snowmen.

"Your snowman's hair sticks broke so I win."

"No fair! My hair sticks up and yours is boring!"

* * *

Jasper had been doing pretty well on the Not Being A Depressing Crying Ghost front up to this point, but after watching Christmas specials all day, something in him just broke.

"I miss my mom..."

Davey had been invested in the Peanuts holiday movie until he heard Jasper muttering on the other side of their fort. "Everything okay?"

Jasper hugged his knees close to his chest. "Was supposed to spend Christmas with my mom this year. Spent the last couple with my dad 'cause she was always busy with something or other, but instead I'm spending Christmas on a lame island in the middle of Nowheresville."

All Davey could respond with was, "Oh. ...Sorry to hear."

The television stayed off for the rest of the week.

* * *

Spring returned, with all the flowers and bugs and woodland critters. (The squirrels seemed to know they were there. Davey was hoping they'd let him pet them and they never did.)

Then summer. They could see yellow-shirted Campbell campers milling about across the lake, but it seemed like Campbell and Quartermaster were doing their best to keep them away from the island. Darn.

Fall. Winter. Spring. Summer. Fall. Winter. Spring. Summer.

Jasper's dad was on the news on the five-year anniversary of their disappearance. There were even aged-up photos showing what could've been a 15-year-old David and a 16-year-old Jasper, and the two laughed because really, they hadn't changed a bit.

"I wish we could grow up just 'cause then maybe you wouldn't sound like Mickey Mouse."

"That's mean, Jasper!"

"Don't hate me 'cause it's true!"

Fall, winter, spring, summer.

* * *

Finally, fourteen whole years after they'd died, some kids landed ashore.

* * *

The first time they went to Spooky Island, it was more to prove they weren't scared of a dumbass island than anything. Quartermaster built it up way too much, anyway. Ghost on the island? No such thing, he's gotta be hiding something.

Nikki was all too excited when she jumped off the boat. "Alright spook hunters, let's hunt some spooks!"

" _Don't say that._ "

* * *

A few minutes after landing, Nikki and Neil were startled by something in the bushes, which turned out to be...

"Howdy!"

Some annoyingly-voiced ginger runt, shortly followed by a very nervous, very weirdly dressed blond kid.

Max eyed them suspiciously. "Who the hell are you?"

"Are you the ghosts Quartermaster was talking about?" Nikki piped up.

The two newcomers glanced at each other, before Neil commented- "Even if ghosts _were_ real it's not like they would _tell_ you."

The shorter one grinned despite the ruckus and put an arm around his friend's shoulder. "Hi! I'm Davey! And this is my best friend Jasper!"

The 'Jasper' kid waved quietly before speaking up finally. "Who are you guys? Awful spooky of a night to be wandering around here.."

Max crossed his arms. "We're here to prove there's no such thing as stupid ghosts or whatever."

"Yeah, we heard there's monsters afoot!" Nikki chimed.

"So you're mystery solvers? Like the Harlem Globetrotters?" Jasper asked.

"Yep!"

David grinned excitedly at the trio and bounced on his heels. "Do you have a theme song?"

Nikki eyed some metal bits on the ground nearby. "We're working on it!"

"Radical.."

"So you're gonna go rid the old mansion of the basement-monsters, right?" David inquired.

Neil glanced at him quizzically. "What do you mean by 'monsters'?"

The boys shared a spooked glance before Jasper elaborated, hugging his arms around himself: "Nights like this, terrible creatures seek out the mansion. You can hear them from the living room! They scream, and the bumping starts, and they go bump and they bump, and-" He stopped mid-sentence when Davey grabbed his shoulders and pulled him along, following after the adventuring trio.

* * *

"Woah."

"What _is_ this place?"

"Looks like Campbell's old summer home."

An eerie moan sounded from inside.

" _The hell was that?!_ "

Just then, Jasper and Davey caught up with them.

"I told you dude! There's _things_ in there."

Nikki jumped up and down. "Is that where the _monsters_ are? I knew it!"

"Look man, you two are kinda ruining our dynamic here. We're a comedy _trio_. Can't do five members." Max shoved his bands into his hoodie pocket. "Besides, there's nothing inside."

"There's something inside!"

Nikki pointed at a shape in an upstairs window... which very quickly disappeared, but still freaked all of the children present out.

"Yawn."

"We'll see who's yawning when we're all _dead!_ "

The newcomers shared a nervous laugh.

* * *

The storm tripped the power, so not only did they have to go to the spooky basement, they had to do it in the _dark._ Though, first they had to find a way down there. _In the dark._ Jasper was unfortunately reminded that Davey liked to chatter when he was scared.

"Oh my fucking god, someone shut him up already." Max intoned.

"That's not very nice!" Davey whimpered.

The moment was interrupted by Jasper pulling down a statue arm and sending Neil screaming to another room via secret bookcase entrance.

"NEIL!"

The four of them rushed over to the stone wall where the bookcase was previously.

"The FUCK did you DO?"

"Don't have a cow, man! I was just trying to be part of the gang!"

Neil's yell was muffled by the wall between them. "Oh my god, you have to get in here quick!"

* * *

One trip through the wall later, and they found themselves in a lab.

Then it turned out to be a freaky weird-science lab. How Davey and Jasper managed to completely avoid knowing this thing existed, they didn't know.

More moaning and groaning drifted up from a door which seemed to lead down into the basement.

" _The tormented souls of the dearly departed!_ And _look_ , a trail of hair and blood!"

" _Who. CARES?_ "

"You're just scared!"

Max rolled his eyes. "It's probably just a wounded animal or some other colossal waste of time. I'm leaving."

Davey squeaked from his current position of clinging-to-Jasper's-arm. "B-But what about ridding the island of the _evil?!_ "

"Max is scared!"

"I am _Not. Scared._ I feel like we've established this by now!"

Nikki taunted Max from the doorway, and started skipping downstairs. "Max is scared! Max is sca~red, Max is sca~red, Max is-"

Nikki's sudden silence was freaky enough before the others saw just what what down there. Of course, when they did, Davey screamed, which made Jasper and Neil _also_ scream.

"Oh jesus _fucking_ lord.."

"Welp! We made it, Nikki! We made it, David! Everyone happy now?"

"Idon'twannabehere!"

"You know what, maybe the evil's unstoppable! We should all just, go and, maybe play some Pogs, forget this ever happened!"

"I thought it was scary when a dog got tangled up in my laundry, but this..."

Max's grin only grew. "Oh, _no!_ We gotta look for ghosts and monsters and all that bullshit! Remember?!"

"Max, this is WAY too spooky!"

"No, it isn't. You know what this is? Proof that the founder of Camp Campbell is a rich piece of shit with terrible morals! Who maybe kills people! ...All things I was already pretty sure of!"

"But the monster! The WAILS! You can't explain that!"

The two newcomers had their gazes fixed on something. "Actually..."

A door. Neil, Jasper, and Davey screamed. Max bristled. "The hell I can't!"

* * *

Davey and Jasper watched from the shore as the three kids and Quartermaster, unfortunately in only a towel, sped away on a motorboat.

"Welp, Davey, I think we learned a lesson."

"Exploring is bad?"

"We should've learned that a long time ago!"

"Well... we didnt!"

"Now we have! Exploring is bad, and sometimes the only thing scarier than _ghost_ and _monsters,_ is real life."

"Like old people doing weird things in a dungeon?"

" _Exactly_ like that."

The two shared a disturbed glance before shrugging their shoulders and disappearing into the mist.


End file.
